Majority of state's 'Best Doctors' are affiliated with UH medical school

Over 80% of the physicians identified as Hawai`i’s “Best Doctors” are alumni and/or faculty of the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) at UH Mānoa.

Of the 410 Hawai`i physicians on the 2014 “Best Doctors” list, 333 (81%) trained at the University of Hawai`i medical school. Almost half of all physicians currently practicing medicine in the state earned their MD or specialty certification at JABSOM or serve on its faculty.

“The significance for Hawai`i," said JABSOM Dean Jerris Hedges, “is that the University of Hawai’i medical school truly is the single most important contributor to the physician workforce in our state and produces extraordinary doctors. We are grateful for the ongoing support by the people of Hawai`i for our efforts to provide outstanding patient care and medical education.”

Local students who outperform others in the U.S.Ninety percent of the MD students admitted into JABSOM’s MD program are Hawai`i residents, and they consistently out-score their peers in the national licensing exam* at the end of their second year of training. In fact, the school’s students have exceeded the national average for the past 10 years in a row.

Just two weeks ago, JABSOM conferred degrees on 62 of its most recent MD graduates. Next month, a new MD class of 66 students will join the second-, third- and fourth-year students whose medical training continues in classrooms and in clinical wards and patient bedsides of major hospitals and health centers around the state. JABSOM also supervises some 235 medical Residents (MDs training in specialty fields) as they work toward their licensure and board certifications, also on site at major area medical centers.

The annual “Best Doctors” list is determined by the doctors themselves, through a survey in which physicians are asked, “If you or a loved one needed a doctor in your specialty, to whom would you refer them?”

The Boston-based medical consulting company, “Best Doctors, Inc.” compiles the annual list of “America's Best Doctors." Hawai`i’s list is published by Honolulu Magazine in its June 2014 issue.

Additional information:The *USMLE Step 1 is a national examination all U.S. medical students must pass at the completion of their second year of study, before they are permitted to proceed to clinical training at the bedsides of patients.

“Best Doctors, Inc.," a medical consulting company founded by physicians affiliated with the Harvard Medical School, compiles the annual list of “America’s Best Doctors." For more information, see http://www.bestdoctors.com/about-best-doctors.